The present invention refers to a new late harvesting variety of triploid mandarin which will hereinafter be denominated as the ‘Late Seedless Mandarin’ tree. The ‘Late Seedless Mandarin’ tree produces commercially seedless mandarin fruit, bearing in late March through to May in the citrus areas of Sicily, Italy. The ‘Late Seedless Mandarin’ trees are triploid (three sets of chromosomes). The trees bear from year three and have consistent year-to-year bearing habits. The fruit has acceptable rind thickness, acid-sugar ratios and color, and has an average juice content of 45% to about 60% at harvest.
In the development of new commercial fruit varieties, specific characteristics provide a premium on those fruit varieties that mature late or late in the growing season. For a new fruit variety to be a commercial success the fruit must be of good size, good color, and also have good holding/storage characteristics, advantageous harvest times and shipping characteristics. In addition, the date of maturing must be different from other similar fruit. This new invention meets all of the aforementioned criteria and therefore would be of commercial appeal to the consumer.
The ‘Late Seedless Mandarin’ variety is a triploid sexual hybrid. Polyploidy in citrus is well known (pgs. 191-193, Spiegel-Roy & Goldschmidt, 1966). Citrus and related genera are typically diploidic and have two sets of 9 chromosomes (2n=18). Triploids, tetraploids and hexaploids exist naturally but occur in low percentages in the population. Citrus triploids are cytologically recognizable by the presence of an additional set of chromosomes. In some cases, triploids are also morphologically recognizable.